According to Sony, it has sold 70 million PlayStation 3 units globally as of November 4, 2012. This is the cumulative number since its launch in 2006.

Additionally, Sony has sold 15 million PlayStation Move motion controllers globally as of November 11, 2012 since its launch in 2010.

Back in September of this year, it was announced that Sony planned to release a thinner PS3 starting at $270. The latest PS3 console will be available in either 250GB and 500GB bundles. The 250GB bundle will come in either black or white and will have "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" Game of the Year Edition included. The price tag is set at $269.99. For those more interested in the 500GB model, it will come in black only alongside the "Assassin's Creed III" release.

Sony also made huge changes to the Trophies section on the PS3 via a system software update (Version 4.30) in October.

[Image Source: CNET AU]

The Japanese electronics maker has had some financial trouble in recent years due to issues like a sinking TV division, but new Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai is leading a major restructuring plan for the company that includes focusing on gaming as one of the major three pillars (the other two are digital imaging and mobile).

When I see sales numbers like that for the PS3, I would say it had a very poor showing. Going into that generation of home gaming systems, the PS2 dominated everything and the original XBOX didn't have a big market share. Even if Sony came in at a close 3rd place finish, that's a huge loss of market share.

Then again, other factors have be accounted for. I've seen some information indicating that while Nintendo sold a lot of Wii's, they didn't do very well in software sales. I think the XBox was the real winner in the last generation. It brought a lot of innovation with the online community features and it made big gains in market share. While the Kinect is incredible technology, I'm not sure it has translated into increased games sales.

Don't sing Microsoft's praises too loudly, they spent way more on warranty repairs than any other console maker. The 360 is good when it works, but a 30% defect rate is very expensive. The 360 is more dependable now than it used to be, but fixing a problem after the fact won't erase a gamer's bad experience or a company's tarnished reputation.

Exactly! I have a buddy who is on his 7th XBox and don't have any console gamer friends that didn't have to purchase at least 2 systems or go without. If sony is only 2 million units behind MS I would call that a win. BTW I don't own either.

This round the Wii opened part of a new market. Even my Grandma bought a wii. She probably used it a dozen times and hasn't touched it in the last year. I will bet you that there are a lot of people out there like my Grandma that will not be purchasing a Wii U.

Software sales are somewhat irrelevant if you are already making profit on the consoles. And let's not forget that virtually every single one of nintendo's 1st-party series titles sold remarkably well; only the lack of (quality) 3rd-party titles was pronounced.

I expect that 3rd parties are going to warm up more to the Wii-U, since nintendo is now the reigning userbase leader, and the Wii-U is more than capable of spitting out virtually any 1080p gaming experience demanded of it.

Microsoft is clearly the winner this cycle when it comes to revenue, but personally I wish they had never joined the race considering XBL. You can call it a new "ecosystem" or whatever you'd like but XBL is basically a locked down web/server browser that you need to pay a subscription to use. the service is the equivalent of requiring an entry fee to steam or battle.net.

It's hilariously absurd that they're able to charge, however little, for redirecting 360s to netflix, ESPN, facebook/twitter or 3rd party multiplayer servers (if not peer2peer). On top of that they have ads in place regardless of account type, and they charge developers for patch hosting if they release more than 1 patch. They must be making a pretty penny off their xbox live installbase.